This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veterans Issues

  • Kyle Dinkheller’s murderer faces execution

    Kyle Dinkheller’s murderer faces execution

    That’s the video of Sheriff Deputy Kyle Dinkheller when he was murdered on Jan. 12, 1998 by Andrew H. Brannanon a country road in Georgia when Brannanon was pulled over for driving at about 100 miles per hour. Now, Brannanon is due to be executed on Tuesday for his actions. But, his lawyer is trying to get a stay to the execution on the grounds that he suffers from “PTSD” from his service in Vietnam, according to the Washington Post;

    His lawyers, L. Joseph Loveland Jr. and Brian S. Kammer, said in a recent petition to the Georgia Board Of Pardons And Paroles that the jury who found Brannan guilty in 2000 never heard all the facts of the veteran’s combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses.

    […]

    “Andrew’s combat experience forever altered his personality and his life,” his lawyers say in the most recent petition. “Although he initially re-entered civilian life, he soon began to manifest signs of serious mental illness, which grew worse over time.”

    […]

    “The terrible toll of combat is not an excuse for violent criminal conduct, but it is entirely appropriate for the Board to consider these facts in assessing the retribution that society demands
    for the criminal conduct that is triggered by mental illness resulting from combat,” the petition says.

    I’m pretty sure that the defense will have trouble finding a specialist in the realm of post-traumatic stress which will classify the behavior I saw in that video a result of that disorder. In fact, anyone who hides behind their military service as an explanation for their bad behavior, as Brannanon did when he yelled that he is a “goddamn Vietnam combat veteran,” probably suffers from something not related to that service.

    Clearly, he wasn’t suffering from flashbacks or anything related to his service while he was doing his little dance routine. The Post tries to make it look as if the deputy escalated the situation, but it was all that murderer’s fault – the deputy showed great restraint, which cost him his life.

    Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.

  • Michael Williams; another crazed vet

    Michael Williams; another crazed vet

    michael-williams

    Top Kone sends us a link to WOOD-TV which tells the story of Michael Williams who was apparently a Desert Storm veteran. He attacked several people he didn’t know with “a large hunting knife” because they turned into demons while he was talking to them. A local police officer subdued him with a taser. In the picture above, he was in the infantry (blue cord and blue disks) and his family claims that his service in Desert Storm made him a little nutzo;

    Williams has a history of mental health problems dating back at least nine years, when he was petitioned for treatment after arming himself with a hammer and knives in his own home, according to court documents obtained by 24 Hour News 8.

    His family has told 24 Hour News 8 that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the U.S. Army during Desert Storm.

    […]

    According to the petition filled out by an aunt, Williams told his family “people are following him, people are under (the) house and jumping out windows and no one else can see them.”

    His mother and sister said he was carrying a hammer and knives in a “threatening posture” in the house, “throwing objects” and digging, apparently in the crawl space, to find people.

    […]

    His cousin, Lawhawn Scroggins, of Utah, told 24 Hour News 8 that Williams called her on Tuesday — three days before the Amtrak stabbing — to say that people were following him and trying to kill him. She and Williams’ uncle, David Scroggins, said he suffers from PTSD.

    Yeah, well the court determined that his lunacy was related to cocaine abuse and drug use. But the Army made him crazy. I’ll tell you that you’d be hard pressed to find an expert on PTS who would conclude that PTS caused Williams to hallucinate. I’m going with the drug abuse excuse.

  • Yeah, we get it, Washington Post; you hate the military

    Yeah, we get it, Washington Post; you hate the military

    Washington Post hates the military

    Chock Block sends us a link to the latest hit piece in the Washington Post by some fellow named Bill Webster about the personnel costs of maintaining an effective fighting force. Of course, he compares the job to the civilian sector;

    Washington Post hates the military2

    A job in the military, the military in which I served, doesn’t compare to the civilian sector. What Mr. Webster doesn’t understand is that the Department of Defense needs to attract the best and brightest to a job that is more arduous and more time consuming than any job in the private sector. I suspect that Mr. Webster is a little bit jealous that he didn’t plan for his future like people in the military have done. We paid with our youth, our lives and our health for our comfortable retirement, while Mr. Webster was drinking himself through college – put a price tag on that.

    Training for war is as hazardous as the war itself, military operations begin long before they appear in a journalist’s camera lens. If this country needs well-trained educated people to operate the tools of victory, they need to pay for it and there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel for folks who make a career of the military – the backbone of a professional fighting force is careerism. The troops don’t have the option of taking their skills elsewhere for higher pay when they’re combat arms – there’s no compensation package to compete for their skills. There is little they can do with those skills when they leave the military.

    I’ll bet Mr. Webster can count on one hand the number of times that he was headed to work at 4 AM and his workday lasted for days at a time after that, often without sleep. I wonder how many times he got a call at 1 AM to come to work prepared to fight off the Soviet hordes. And there was no overtime pay involved – it was a call to arms. That training was what kicked Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 100 hours, it was what kicked Hussein out of Baghdad in 2003. That kind of performance, expertise and dedication costs money.

    I absolutely dare Mr. Webster and the Washington Post to do the same comparison and tax payer cost analysis on welfare and Medicaid.

  • Army Times; the military’s shift Left

    The Army Times writes that members of the military are slowly shifting to the Left in their political leanings. That’s because they’ve begun to accept the social engineers’ programs like gays in thee military and women in combat. But it also states that support for the President has fallen from 30% to 15% in their poll.

    At the same time, they report that “44 percent think both major political parties have become less supportive of military issues in recent years” which is what they should really take away from their little poll, not that military folks are more liberal.

    The military has always supported gays in the military – I knew of a few who were in when I was in and as long as they did their job, I didn’t care. My views on women in combat haven’t changed either and I think I’m in line with most members of the military when I say that all women should have the opportunity to prove that they can meet the current, time-tested standard and serve with men. I knew a few of those women, too. But, I don’t think anyone would accuse me of being a liberal. So, the folks at Army Times are reading what they want in the poll. Conservatives are defenders of equal opportunity for all Americans, in the traditional sense, not the new liberal backwards definition where everything is normed to groups.

    The truth is that members of the military are as conservative as ever, but they’re not Republicans. The GOP has lost our faith. The first people to call for cuts to personnel costs during the current wars were Republicans – Bachman, Graham, McCain, Coburn – the same people who sent the troops to war in the first place.

    Republicans didn’t have the political and testicular fortitude to avoid sequestration and they’ve done nothing since the White House plan took effect to change it and restore funding to the military. They’ve done little to hold the Pentagon’s feet to the fire to cut wasteful spending. Republicans cleaved to the personnel cuts because it’s the easiest thing to cut without much thought or plan.

    Chief Tango, who sent us the Army Times link, also sends this from the National Review, which picks up on what I’ve written above;

    Those service members who consider themselves Republicans have slowly dropped from nearly half of those surveyed to just 32 percent this year. The Times poll notes that “increasingly, readers are more likely to describe themselves as libertarian (7 percent) or independent (28 percent).” Democrats and liberals make up some 8 percent of the poll respondents.

    The take away is; people in the military don’t trust politicians, and that’s not new. What’s new is that we used to trust Republicans more than we trusted Democrats to fight for us while we’re fighting for the country. That’s not true anymore, at least in the perception of the troops. The Democrats have been very good at saving welfare and food stamps for their traditional constituents, but the Republicans have been very bad at representing their traditional constituents – the military and veterans, the people who earned what they expect from the government.

  • Hubert S. Terry’s Purple Heart Medals returned to family

    Hubert S. Terry’s Purple Heart Medals returned to family

    Scotty sent us a link to an article about the journey some medals made from a storage locker in Missouri to the veterans’ family in Mississippi. Scotty’s research skills that he uses to bust phonies aided in the search;

    “He has real good computer investigative skills,” Cerchi said. “Of course, he has to because he mainly deals with exposing military phonies. He was just thrilled to be able to use those skills for something like this.

    “Once Scott got on the case, the man we were searching for started to come to life. It wasn’t just a name on a medal — Hubert S. Terry — now it was Sgt. Terry, United States Army, a veteran of World War II, who served in the occupational forces of Japan and then went to Korea where he was killed in action on Sept. 4, 1951.”

    Scott also informed the searchers that Sgt. Terry was buried in the Marks, Mississippi Cemetery.

    “We thought we had a trace because we found an application for a military marker that was filled out by an Augustus Terry,” Cerchi said. “He turned out to be Hubert’s brother, but unfortunately had passed away in 2010.”

    It’s a good long story and you should click over and read the rest.

  • SFC Alwyne Cashe and the MoH – Maybe We Can Help

    SFC Alwyne Cashe and the MoH – Maybe We Can Help

    I trust everyone reading this saw Jonn’s article about SFC Alwyne Cashe the other day. If not, you need follow the link and read it – now – along with the LA Times article to which Jonn links.

    While I trust that the Army will eventually do the right thing, that’s not a lock. Even then, doing the right thing may take a long time unless there’s significant external interest in the matter.

    With that latter, maybe there is something we can do to help.

    One thing that the Five Sided Asylum seems to notice is inquiries from Congress. And one thing that Congress seems to notice is stuff that makes the mainstream press. Hell, most Members of Congress appear to pray daily at the Altar of the Media Gods.

    Well, SFC Cashe’s story has now hit one of the larger media outlets.  So, tell me: what do you suppose would happen if a large number of Congressional Representatives and Senators started receiving mail from their constituents consisting of a polite letter asking them to look into SFC Cashe’s case – with a copy of that article attached?  (I’ve archived a copy in the event it ages off the LA Times’ website.)

    I can’t say for sure whether that would make a difference.  But I’d guess that if the Pentagon gets forty or fifty inquiries from different Representatives and Senators, they just might decide to move out smartly – if for no other reason than to “stop the pain”.

    This link seems to be a good source of contact information for Members of Congress.   (E-mail contact is found by clicking the state; you have to click individual names next to get “snail mail” addresses.) I’ve also taken the liberty of drafting a sample letter to Congress as a starting point. You can download the draft text for a letter here.  You’ll need to format/alter it to suit your own ‘druthers and situation.

    The above link for Congressional contact info has both electronic and USPS contact information. However, if you decide to send your Senators and/or Representative correspondence and can afford to do so, I’d suggest going the hardcopy route – or maybe doing both.  I understand hardcopy still gets more “weight” in Congressional offices these days.

    Again, this might or might not do any good.  But IMO, it’s certainly worth a shot.

  • Purple Hearts for Fort Hood Shooting Victims? Maybe.

    Well, that could be the result if the latest Defense Authorization Act (DAA) passes and is signed.

    Per the Army Times, 2015 DAA being considered by Congress

    . . . stipulates that Purple Heart medals will be awarded to “members of the armed forces killed or wounded in domestic attacks inspired by foreign terrorist organizations.”

    The Army Times article has more details. IMO, it’s worth a read.

    IIMO it’s way past freaking time for this to have happened. Better late than never, I guess.

  • Merry CHRISTmas

    Merry CHRISTmas

    Mary asked us to publish this now that we’re officially into the Christmas season.

    It’s that “wonderful time of the year” again. Christmas carols, sale ads, Santa Claus and decorations – 24 hours a day. The true meaning of Christmas – the birth of Christ – gets lost in political correctness, long lists of “wants” but not needs, and stores needing profit to survive.

    I have been reading memories shared of a time many would choose to forget. But these proud men have found something good to remember, and something that many of us could learn a lesson from.

    The question was asked of our former Vietnam Prisoners of War – what did you give each other in captivity for Christmas?

    One has to remember some were held almost 9 years, others a few months. Many spent years in the dungeons of Hanoi – tortured, teased, injured, isolated – but rarely without hope.

    The memories recounted started in 1965.

    Early during the war, expecting another “quiz” – in the room was a Norfolk Island Pine tree with a string of regular-sized light bulbs that had been painted in several colors. Each of the two POWs got a thimble full of orange wine and an extra cigarette. When they got back to their cell they exchanged gifts. Each gave the other his cigarette – then they talked about baseball.
    In 1966 – several were living in 12′ x 12′ cells. They had no contact with other POWs. For seven weeks one had been undergoing a torture that was called “holding up the wall”-standing facing the wall with his arms straight over his head. Christmas morning, after “just” three hours, a camp officer told him that the Camp Commander had forgiven him of his “crimes.” Then the Vietnamese gave them a “good” Christmas dinner-a piece of meat, lots of rice, and, for the first time, cabbage soup.

    Then there was the “Protestant or Catholic?” Christmas for some.

    Asked one Christmas Eve to answer the question – Protestants received a small bag from guards
    which contained an orange, several cookies and small pieces of candy. They found out later that the Catholics got a tangerine instead of an orange. One POW who was living by himself told the guard he was neither Protestant nor Catholic. The guard closed the hatch without giving him anything. He found religion the next year!

    Sometimes there were quiet carols and The Lord’s Prayer. But also from the local Vietnamese clergy was the message that POWs should pray to God for forgiveness of their crimes against the Vietnamese people.

    The next year one of the men said, “What will we do if we don’t make it home for Christmas?” Someone answered, “We will continue to pray for next Christmas.”

    In 1968 the statement was made by one officer, “Everybody who believes in Santa Claus, hang a sock on your mosquito net. Remember, those who believe will receive!”

    One POW did not hang up a sock because he needed to wear the socks to try to keep warm. They each had two thin blankets but he had to use one as cushion for his bad hip. ALL received Christmas cards, stocking or not, made in secrecy by the officer, while many others mentally filled the night with dreams of shopping lists, and wrapping gifts and prayers for family at home. A virtual Christmas far from home.

    When HO Chi Minh died – some POWs actually were allowed to send a letter (six lines) home and some received packages from loved ones. The POWs made Christmas cards for the men in the other buildings. These were “air-mailed” by tying a rock to the paper and throwing them from one courtyard to another.

    The guards actually gave each POW cookies and cigarettes that year.

    The year of the failed Son Tay raid, 1971, was another changing Christmas for those in captivity. Finally, after so many years, they were all in the same camp, with 25 to 56 men per cell. It was the year “Santa’s helper” dressed in long johns, proceeded to help “Santa” dressed in red suit, black “boots”, stocking cap, and a white beard and mustache give out hilariously funny imaginary gifts to everyone. How the costumes were made is still a mystery!

    Torture increased as demands for religious services and improvements in living conditions were asked.

    Gifts received were made from bread and sticks, or were carols performed by some for all. There was the imaginary book “How to Play Winning Poker” and the pin once a week for a month.

    The Christmas Bombings were a “gift” in 1972. One of the men heard from the guards that the United States was bombing targets in Hanoi with big bombers night and day.

    A new POW, captured after his plane was shot down in those Christmas bombings said: “We thought of you guys every Christmas. Didn’t bring you anything but delivered a lot of presents to Uncle Ho and friends December 72. Wish we could of done it sooner, but then I couldn’t say I served with my heroes.”

    Christmas Eve, 1972, was a quiet one for the POWs. The choir sang some carols and that was about it. Their thoughts and prayers were about the future. And how many more Christmases at home might be missed.

    In the spring of 1973 – prayers were answered. POWs were released, and virtual gifts became reality for many.

    In the memories recounted and the gifts discussed, were thoughts of

    · a chard of tomato.

    · MERRY CHRISTMAS yelled across a court yard, knowing well what the consequences would be.

    · Origami Christmas ornaments made out of toilet paper hung on the mosquito netting.

    · The pewter beer mug promised – and delivered Christmas 1973.

    · An envelope of sand (silicon) and some wire scraps – a “kit” to make a transistor radio for the room!

    · A terry towel Christmas tree filled with ornaments made from colored tinfoil collected over the years.

    · A chess set made from the crossbars of a stool – with red and white pebbles as pawns.

    · Nine POWs exchanged “virtual” gifts that would become real gifts after release. Beautiful engraved gold Zippo lighters that many still hold as one of their most prized possessions.

    It doesn’t take a credit card bill to make Christmas merry. Just takes a doorknob on your side of the door and the realization life is what you make of it.

    With thanks to Nam Pows for allowing me to share in their memories these past 25 years. Reality check for sure.